The Foreigners - Maxine Swann [60]
A general retreats from battle, hunkers down in the hills. I had come away to nurse my wounds, recuperate and think through my next move. I would use all the tricks I had at my disposal. She could change shapes all she wanted. I didn’t care. Underneath was something else, I felt sure of it, this warm furry creature, sitting there quietly, waiting for me.
I stayed away a month. But even on returning to Buenos Aires, I didn’t call Leonarda right away. I wanted to be careful, to do this right. The city had emptied out in my absence, as I’d been told it always did at this time of year. Isolde was in Uruguay, a different part than where I had been, Punta del Este, where the summer parties were. I called the hairdresser’s to make an appointment with Vera, but she was also at the beach, the Argentine coast. And Leonarda? For a moment, I imagined that she’d gone away with him, that the two of them were in Tigre, swanning along the muddy waterways, checking out island properties together. I panicked for a moment, was about to call her, then lay down on the floor for as long as I needed to, to calm myself down.
The city was too hot for comfort. The streets were glaring.
I saw Gabriel. He’d had to stay in town for his messenger work. He seemed languid from the heat. But he approved of my taking time to think things through. I could tell that he approved.
The botanist had gotten in touch. He was very excited about a story happening on Argentine soil, a flower, the Iris pseudacorus that was taking over the Argentine wetlands. This was typical of him. He’d get very excited about a particular plant case and follow it closely.
“Have you heard about it?” he asked.
I hadn’t, but I promised to keep my ears open.
I turned again to my water research. I had less than three months to go before I sent in my final report. I spent a number of afternoons in the National Public Library doing research. I took a tour of the water purification plant, witnessing how the dirty water from the Río de la Plata got transformed into the clear liquid that found its way into buildings and houses.
Finally, after three weeks of this, I called.
twenty-one
Heyyyyy, hiiiiiiiiiiiii!” Leonarda said. “You have no idea how much you want to see me.”
I picked her up after her Chinese lesson.
She was wearing a tiny miniskirt, sneakers and her glasses. “Oh, wait, we have to put on makeup.” We stopped under a streetlight. It was dusk again. A dog was lying in the open door of a garage. “You need green, I always told you,” she said. “Close your eyes.” She put deep shimmering green shadow on my eyelids.
We came to a plaza, its pathways on diagonals, the trees enormous, benches minuscule. All that green in the darkness, hulked there, breathing.
I was trying to keep my equanimity. One part of my brain, a stronghold, wouldn’t budge. But another part was buckling, even now, I could feel it. Okay, go ahead, colonize.
The point was I needed to stay in charge. Seduce, enchant, those things too, but above all take control of how the evening would unfold.
She looked over at me with a funny smile. “You’re grateful to us, aren’t you?” she said. “Our antics free you up.”
I raised my eyebrows. I didn’t mind what I assumed to be her jealousy, her fear of losing full dominion over me.
“You’re that kind of foreigner. You go somewhere exotic and start moving your butt”—she circled her little butt around; some guys hooted from their cars—“and suddenly you think you’ve had an epiphany,